Don't Snow On My Parade
by God's Band Geek
Summary: It's Anna's twentieth birthday! What could go wrong? No, really. What's going to go wrong today?
1. Would you like a heart attack?

**Disclaimer: Frozen and all it's property belong to Disney.**

**Howdy there. Get it? Because I'm from Oklahoma and we're all born cowboys here. Kidding. So, here I go. I'm trying to write a very fluffy multi-chapter fic that will be void of any angst. I'm trying new things. :)**

* * *

"Elsa? Elsa where are you?" Anna cried out through the lantern lit halls of the castle in the early morning. The sky was just starting to give way to a lighter shade of gray at the horizon. "Where in the world could that woman be?"

"Princess Anna? What are you doing up so early? And on your birthday?" Helga asked as she turned the corner that led into the hall Anna was in.

"Oh Helga! Have you seen Elsa? I can't find her anywhere!"

"She went to the stables a little earlier my dear. Happy birthday." She gave a rough smile from the strain of carrying the heavy basket piled high with clean linen to be sent to the Great Hall for Anna's twentieth birthday dinner.

"Thank you. Here let me help you."

"No, no, you go run along while you're young missy." She began to walk away unrelenting.

"Oh Helga, let me help you, "_while I'm young"_." Anna went and forcefully grabbed the basket from the shorter woman's arms and as they walked to the Great Hall Helga failed miserably at trying to scold Anna for helping someone in need.

* * *

"Kristoff?" Elsa asked roaming the sweet smelling stables, the hay nice and fresh. "I'm h-WHOA!" A stable door flashed opened to her right with a tall, burly man jumping boisterously out to surprise the queen who fell over. He wasn't that great at judging distance by sound and accidentally knocked her down.

"Oh shoot! I'm so sorry Elsa!" Sven gleefully neighed in laughter, prancing in his stall across the way on Elsa's left. Kristoff immediately bent over and simply dead lifted the queen to her feet and smacked off the hay that clung to her dress and she combed away the pieces stuck in her hair. "I'm such an idiot. This isn't how I needed today to start out." His voice deepening with gloom.

"I'm okay Kristoff. I'm fine. Just next time, jump out sooner." Elsa laughed at her advice while Kristoff face palmed himself repeatedly. "Oh stop that." She grabbed at his wrist jerking it away from his reddened forehead.

"Now, what did you want to talk to me about?" She asked letting go of his wrist.

"Well..." Now his whole face blossomed into a deep shade of red, and he walked over to Sven's saddle hanging beside the reindeer's stall and dug into a pocket for a tiny box, and while intensely looking at it he went on saying, "I figure this way, it'll make it harder for you to say no." Then he turned around and faced her, closing his right hand around the box tightly making his knuckles turn white. Her brows were cocked in confusion and she felt heat begin to come off her face. His breath caught in his throat and his heart hammered in his chest.

He then dawdled back over to her and reached for her right hand with his left and placed the box in it, and kept his hand over it while she held it. Their faces were in a death match in who could be more on fire.

"Kristoff?" Her voice dwindled into a whisper.

"Elsa?" He took a big breath in through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, only for it to barely make his knees stop shaking, his nerves all still frenzied. "Elsa, will you... Give me your blessing to marry Anna." He then opened the box and in it held a marvelous diamond ring, reflecting the warm glow of all the lanterns illuminating the stables.

"Oh thank Odin above!" Elsa exclaimed in utter relief raising a hand to wipe away the thin layer of anxious sweat from her forehead.

"Tha-Wait, what?" He started excitedly, but then not so much.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought you were proposing to me!"

"What?! What gave you that idea?!" He yelled snapping the box shut and snatching it back close to his chest.

"_Maybe_ presenting me with a ring and how you said it would make it harder to say no to!" Elsa defended herself, her heart beginning to beat normal again.

"Oh gods Elsa. I'm so sorry. God, I'm still an idiot!" He threw his arms up and turning away in shame and sheer embarrassment.

"The future prince of Arendelle shouldn't go calling himself an idiot." Elsa stated with a warm smile stamped to her face.

"Oh **now** what are you talking about?"

Elsa playfully rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her and leaned to the side and thought, 'This guy can't take a hint. No wonder it took him two years to propose.' "_You_."

He turned on his heel sharply. "_Me_?" His eyes widened and his pupils dilated into giant black ponds.

"Yes." She said smiling again.

"Ha!" He cried out with a beaming grin and rushed back over to her and picked her up in a bear hug. "Thank you! Thank you! _Thank you_!" He praised while spinning them around in circles, but then remembered himself a little too late as he lowered her back down dizzily.

Elsa chuckled at his excitement as he spun around in the opposite way to gain his balance back. "You're welcome."

"But, wait. Would I really be a prince?"

"It's up to the presiding monarch to decide and so yes; I will bestow the title of prince upon you when you wed my sister."

"But, I don't think I deserve it. I mean my knighthood already feels too much already."

"That just proves how worthy you are of both the title of knight and of prince. My father used to tell me that power should be given to those who don't want it."

"Why?"

"Because they won't abuse it. They know it's more intoxicating than wine and try so they spend their whole lives drinking only water. That was my father's answer when I asked why, and also for when he had me start drinking wine." Elsa chuckled at the humor Kristoff couldn't grasp.

**_'A queen must keep a level head just like her king, even after a night of party and drink.' The king said as Elsa tried to scrape the taste of the wine off her tongue._**

**_'But it tastes so gross!' Elsa objected._**

**_'You're just too young to really enjoy it. When I was your age my mother told me to pretend it was grape juice. When you grow older you won't have to pretend anymore. That's just how some things work.'_**

**_'Try it again, only take a small sip. Yes, that's it. No need to guzzle the whole thing at once.' He smiled warmly towards his ten year old daughter._**

**_'Does Anna have to drink wine too?'_**

**_'Oh heaven's no! She'd down the whole glass and would hiccup for at least an hour!' Her mothered laughed deep from her belly as she took her daughter's cup and her husband refilled it as well as her own and his. She returned it back to Elsa and then her and her husband lifted their cups for Elsa to follow suit._**

**_'To the future.' He toasted and then took a sip, as well did the queen, and as well did Elsa._**

"Elsa!" Kristoff shouted this time, and grabbed hold of her shoulders and shook her gently. She shook her head escaping her memory.

"I'm sorry. I got lost... Um. It was just that my parents had me start drinking at a young age, so that I could learn how to act poised even if I was sloshed."

"Oh." Kristoff lifted his hands away from her, the ring still in his right hand. He went to put it back in Sven's saddle. "I'm just still not so sure about this whole prince thing."

"Well, unless you're planning on overthrowing me, you won't be becoming a king all of a sudden." Elsa jested.

"No! No of course not." He took it literally, like he did everything.

"But, if something happens-"

"Nothing is _ever_ going to happen. You have my word as your knight in shining armor." He beamed warmly, hoping she'll appreciate his joke, but speaking much too soon.

"I was _going_ to say, if you end up divorcing Anna then your title would be stripped, and you would only be a knight again. But way to jump ahead there." She lightly jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. "That's very sweet of you."

Her smiled faded afterwards when she realized she still had something left to add. "But, if you _**ever**_ hurt my little sister. In _**any**_ way," She began to creep towards him, her voice growing more ruthless with every word. "Physically, mentally, emotionally?" She raised her hand making icicles shoot from the ground surrounding Kristoff, poking him in the back as they still grew when he tried to continue backing away from the threatening queen. He soon felt one tickle the back of his neck and then he lowered his eyes to see icicle growing towards his throat.

"Your death will be _very_ slow and _very _painful."

"I-I understand."

"Great!" She yelled joyfully, her face lifting in an innocent smile and she lowered her hand back to her side quickly, making the ice shrink and go back into the ground, no trace of it what so ever.

"Oh there you are!" Anna came jogging over. Elsa was quite good at picking up the sound of her sister's pounding feet from fifty yards away.

"You promised you'd eat at the bakery with me before you had to go to that important meeting! Oh hi Kristoff!" She came in and continued jogging over to her boyfriend and placed a quick kiss on his lips, but he was still getting over the death threat just placed over him to kiss back. "Are you okay?" She asked worried and then pulled away completely. "You two aren't fighting are you? You can't fight on my birthday."

"We weren't fighting Anna. This was my important meeting. It got bumped up in schedule when I thought I had enough time before hand so we could eat longer."

"Awww." Anna rushed over to hug her sister tight.

"Happy birthday my love."

"Thank you!" She pulled away, but slipped her hand into her sister's to stay in contact with her. "What were you two meeting about?"

"Well, it was an emergency, and he needed me right away." Elsa half lied.

"What for? What's wrong honey?" The two girls looked at him, Anna worried, and Elsa optically begging for him to come up with a reason, anything but the truth.

"Uh, nothing's wrong! It's all okay now. It wasn't that much of an emergency. You two go enjoy your breakfast. I've gotta wash up Sven. He got into the pig pen again." He said pointing his thumb over his not so trusty steed who averted his eyes from everyone's disapproving stares.

"Well okay then, see you later! Come on Elsa!" Anna dragged her reluctant sister into a jog. Kristoff watched them shrink away smiling, then his brows fell sharply and he looked back over at Sven.

"The pigs again? Really? Do you know how hard it is to clean you? I don't want to keep you locked in here all night like some wild animal!" Sven snorted in protest.

Back to out in the fields outside the castle: "They just opened an hour ago! They probably don't have that much out yet!" Elsa said in hopes it would slow them down.

"I had them make something special for you! We've gotta get there before it gets too cold!" Anna cheerfully spoke as she led them to where a carriage was waiting for them in front of the gates.

"Anna, it's _your_ birthday. You get presents, not me!"

"Yes, it is _my_ birthday and that means I can give presents if I want to!" She laughed into the chilly fall air. The smell of burning wood and dried leaves sticking to their clothes as they continued jogging in the dark.


	2. Or maybe another castle?

"Will you tell me what it is already?"

"Nope, we're here!" Anna leapt out of the parked carriage and danced a little in excitement as she watched Elsa gracefully exit and looked up at the sign for Somme's Bakery.

"Okay! Now close your eyes." Anna said hurriedly and stepped behind her sister and put her hands over Elsa's eyes and Elsa tried to push them away.

"What are you doing?"

"No peeking!"

"Why can't I look?"

"Do you not understand what a surprise is? Now come on just walk forward."

"Just don't let me run into anything. Please?"

Anna huffed, completely insulted. "Just hurry up before they think we've forgotten and start eating it!"

"Okay okay!" Elsa started to walk and Anna awkwardly guided her from behind, but they successfully made it into the warm, sickeningly sweet smelling shop.

"There you are! HEY! Careful! Bring it back in here. I'm sorry princess but we couldn't wait forever."

"We're here now and that's all that matters." Anna said still covering Elsa's eyes as four men came back in the front store and carried a massive piece of culinary perfection over to a large table and set it down.

"Are you ready sis?"

"As I'll ever be!" She felt Anna's hands lift away and her eyelids fluttered open and before her sat a complete replica of Elsa's castle, casted completely of chocolate. "Oh Anna! This is amazing!"

Anna squealed, overwhelmed with happiness that her sister loved her gift. "And look! I even had them make an Olaf and Marshmallow." Anna went over and pointed at the white chocolate figurines of her sister's two snowy creations.

"This is just... I don't know what to say. Why now though? Why make this for me on your birthday?"

"Because Peter-" Anna crossed her arms across her chest angrily and squinted her eyes at the head confectioner with playful disdain and disgust. "Is leaving us."

"Where are you going?" Elsa asked sadly looking at him with big pouting eyes. She specifically asked where instead of why to make it sound like she was less hurt that her favorite chocolate connoisseur and maker was leaving Arendelle.

"Sweden, to learn some new techniques in chocolate making. My cousin is coming in to take over while I'm gone."

"So you're coming back!" Elsa affirmed gleefully.

"Of course! I can't stay away from my two favorite ladies forever. I'll be back in two years. I promised Anna I'd stay to make this for you. I leave tomorrow."

"I also made him promise to come to my ball tonight." Anna said proudly as she went over to him and squeezed his hand and he squeezed back, but he still kept his gaze on Elsa as she came closer to her mini castle and picked up little Olaf and examined him closer. She felt two holes burning in her head and looked up to find his amber brown eyes looking at her then flicking away after being caught and his face turning red as the blood boiled underneath and Elsa smiled at his embarrassment.

"Will you be needing a proper tuxedo?" She asked setting down the little snowman. She wanted to see his eyes again, they were melting with admiration before he looked away. She wanted to know if she had only imagined it or not.

She didn't.

"I thought my stained apron would suffice. Anna'll probably have me in the kitchens all night making her desserts."

Anna playfully smacked his arm and skipped back over to her big sister, and saw something she's never seen before in her sister's eyes. She's seen a variation of it, she gets that looks every time Elsa looks at her, like she's the only person in the world with her, but this time it looked much more passionate, like the sun versus ten million candles. Anna received the candle look, but Peter was receiving the sun.

"I'll make sure to pull you out then if she does." Anna looked over at Peter after Elsa spoke and saw the same thing in his eyes. The passionate sun radiating from them. Then she looked back over at her sister, and felt invisible, but it was comfortable. She was an old woman now! And understood when two people became the only people in the room.

"Thank you. And, no. My dad's old tux fits me fine. He wore it to your father's coronation, so I think it'll be fine." He laughed at the obviousness of the truth and Elsa laughed too without a care if she thought it funny or not. Anna took advantage of the distraction and inched closer to the castle and broke off the top steeple but before she could lift it to her lips, "Hey! That's not yours." Peter called her out, and she froze like a thief.

Elsa broke her eyes away from Peter's and looked over at her sister caught red handed then reeled back as Anna stuffed the chocolate steeple into her mouth. It immediately began to melt and Elsa closed her eyes in mild ecstasy. If Peter did ever learn how to make better chocolate in Sweden then she was sure he'd be sainted as a new god.

"Is that better?" Anna asked Peter with more mocked anger.

"Oh my goodness. Anna go ahead and have some, it's delicious." Elsa allowed then she turned her face back over to Peter and continued, "You've really out done yourself. It's wonderful."

"Thank you your highness." He spoke shyly, feeling undeserving of her praise.

"Now do you call Anna your highness all the time?" Anna lifted her face the mention of her name, her mouth overstuffed with some of the west wall.

"I can't when she does that." He answered and the two of them laughed.

"Well, when it's just us please call me Elsa. I don't like my close friends to be so formal."

"It took Kristoff a few months to stop calling you queen so much when you said he could stop. Now, that was funny." Anna remarked after managing to swallow most of the chocolate, and Peter just relished in the fact that he's their close friend.

"You're going to have a stomach ache." Elsa chided as Anna went in for more.

"We were about to transport it to your kitchen so you could finish it there." Peter noted.

"Oh good! We'll let you get back to it, and we'll see you tonight." Elsa said pulling Anna away from the sweet mass, and broke apart another steeple and slipped it between her lips and savored it for a moment.

The men that brought it in came back and picked it up and carried out of the room, Anna whimpering and pouting since her sister wouldn't let her have one more piece for the road, but Elsa tugged on her arm and they turned to leave the little bakery as Peter started hounding his cooks to be careful when one of them tripped. He looked back at the door to steal one last glimpse, and got more than he bargained for. Elsa looking back at him.

"You could've at least given me a little bit more. You know I'm going to complain about until it gets home." Anna ranted once out the door, but Elsa was too busy cooling her cheeks with her frosty hands so Anna wouldn't notice them burning with they sat next to each other in the carriage.

"What's so wrong with Peter's cousin coming down to take over?" She asked in hopes of getting Anna to quit whining.

"He's from Flornes." She said with disgust looking over her shoulder at her sister to show her just how much she disliked even saying the name, and Elsa quickly pretended she was combing back her hair. She fooled her, as Anna looked back around and took the doorman's hand to step up into the carriage.

"Oh. Well that is a reason to be mad then." Elsa noted wistfully.

"I don't think I'll come back here until he does." Anna remarked as Elsa stepped in and scooted over close to her sister and slipped her hand into her sister's instinctively.

"Me neither."

"Yeah, well I think you have other reasons for doing so, like for why your hand is freezing cold."

She hadn't fooled her.

"It was just light enough to see that you looked a little embarrassed. So, what happened?" She pursued, looking for dirt, as they began to move.

"Nothing!" Elsa cried out defensively, then smirked as she jeered, "I was just embarrassed of you is all."

"Nice save, but I know what I saw." Anna said with a thick grin and an even thicker voice.

"I have no clue what you're going on about."

"You'll save him tonight for sure."

Elsa looked over at her and in the dark carriage she could just make Anna's brow knitted in plotting.

"Well, at least I know what is happening to you tonight for sure." Elsa looked back in front of her, an air of superiority coming across, and Anna's brow fell and she became worried a little.

"What?" Anna asked with a tiny voice.

"Do you not understand what a surprise is?" Elsa sarcastically repeated to her from earlier and Anna jabbed her with her elbowed lightheartedly.

"Cheeky."


	3. Of fools and hunchbacks and cousins

**I thought I'd try my hand at some description since I've been writing mostly dialogue for two weeks. Tell me what I need to improve on. Also you guys should look up the song 'Jig'. We played it my junior year and my euphonium part had a an awesome solo. I never had more than twenty bars of rest in the whole three page piece. It killed me, but it was fun. Also, I've researched the hell out of Frozen to find out the time period and all the customs that were going on at the time, and it was really becoming modern by the late 1800's apparently.**

* * *

The ball was in full swing. Partners twirling and their feet stepping lively. The band was huffing and puffing to the array of beats; 3/4 for a few bars then switching to 6/8 for a more jig like feel for the waltzes. Colorful streamers wrapped around the pillars and hung from the high vaulted ceilings. The floor just as vibrant from the rainbow reflections of all the ladies dresses as they glided above the ground from being swayed and swished every which way and that.

A few daring men had walked through the doors that evening with swagger abounding with only one idea at mind and heart, they were going to court the queen. Elsa accepted each dance from each ego-swollen suitor only to be polite and therefore inflating their sensitive self-esteems a little more. But, she always bowed to them afterwards, she never curtsied to them. She was not interested in what they had to say about their horsemanship, or how large their own castles were growing, so she would bow extravagantly and they received the message loud and clear that she was not a prize to be fought over, but a woman who was not only their equal, but very superior to them as a queen.

Elsa finally had the chance to get away from the hounding, arrogant men, and went over to the players and asked if they would help her by playing some more fast paced music to ward off anymore suitors trying to wrangle her like cattle. They smiled and nodded their heads then jumped into a polka version of "Skip To the Lou." She turned away from their puffed out faces as they blew away into their horns and she caught a glimpse of a man coming towards her and her eyes twinkled with hope but then the stars fell away like sand bags as she say it wasn't the right brunette she was hoping for, but yet another valiant egotistical _boy_ coming to ask her for a dance, not caring about the fast tempo. She huffed in aggravation and looked to the west of the room and saw a tiny flash of red before it vanished behind a wooden hinged door.. Elsa looked once more at the man approaching her, then towards the door, her beacon of hope, and she fled, trying not to disturb the giant crowd that was to busy talking to make way for her. She almost tripped over someone's dress but pulled herself up before she could get acquainted to the glossy wooden floor. She pushed herself through the door and let out a sigh from the relief from her slight exhaustion, and everyone was too busy in the kitchen as well to notice their queen lying against the wall catching her breath and studying the inside of her eyelids. After her heart calmed down again and she reopened her eye she saw the red again.

She lifted away from the wall and began to maneuver around the men and women carrying various pots and saucers full of bubbling and steaming concoctions.

"Anna?" She called out above the clattering din of the busy kitchen. Anna couldn't hear her, she was engaged in a heated conversation with a man of small stature but a big mouth. Elsa managed to get past every obstacle and reached her little sister, and saw why she wasn't answering.

"I've seen it! I was there you numskull!" Anna insulted the man, and Elsa saw Peter cowering away from Anna's fierce words, trying his hardest to make himself invisible, his cheeks flaming from embarrassment.

"Yes, but! Is it still there? Answer me that!"

"Anna! Don't call people numskulls." Elsa scolded as she grabbed Anna's shoulder to turn her around.

"He doesn't believe that your ice castle is structurally sound! It's just fine though!" She pointed to the rebuilt chocolate castle on a trolley.

"And that's a reason to get so excited about? I'm sorry sir, for her remarks." Elsa said looking over at the man gripping his waistcoat.

"The only numskull is the one who goes and runs off leaving her kingdom behind." He declared boldly.

"How **_dare_** you!" Anna shrieked.

"I am the one that ran away, and I am the one that came back! Now I suggest that you leave before I have you escorted out." Elsa said harshly, not sorry in the least.

The man scoffed and simply turned and left, no apologies for insulting the queen he didn't recognize since he's no exactly from around town.

"The nerve!" Anna yelled again, still raging.

"Who was that?" Elsa demanded, her brow anchored in disgust.

"That would be my cousin, Christopher." Peter finally piped up. "I'm so sorry guys. I didn't think he'd invite himself in tonight. I didn't even know he got here yesterday!"

"It's not you who should apologize Peter. It's that wannabe know it all!" And with that Anna went after Christopher, and Elsa couldn't stop her, she didn't even try. There was no use.

"His judgement demonstrates that one can be a genius and understand nothing of an art that is not one's own." Peter said coming out of the shadows.

Elsa eyes beamed, the stars returning once again and with more intensity. Literature. The man know literature. The peasant, the chocolatier, knew a literary masterpiece.

"The greatest products of architecture are less the works of individuals than of society; rather the offspring of a nation's effort, than the inspired flash of a man of genius." She quoted at him. "You've read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame?

"My father made me read it when we lived in Paris for a few years. I just reread it in our own tongue a few months ago. I couldn't believe how hard it was to fins a Norwegian translation."

"Vous savez français aussi?" Her eyes grew wider, her pupils large oceans.

"Oui." He said simply and they both laughed at their knowledge they held inside their minds. "Doesn't Anna?"

"Did Esmeralda live in the end?"

He laughed at the reference, and therefore made her laugh, and then they fell into an awkward silence.

"Could I entice you to a dance this evening? I couldn't help but notice you've danced with every other male in the world."

She giggled at his hyperbole, covering her glowing smile with her hand. "I'd love to, as long as you don't go on ranting about how the price of silver is too low. I'm getting tired of them all complaining how it's so affordable all the sudden."

He beamed at her and outstretched his hand for her. "If it's so cheap then why can't I afford it?"

She took his hand and they began to wrestle their way through the kitchen and head out the door.

"I don't know, do you save your money?"

"That's how I'm getting to Sweden. I saved just enough for a little dinghy and I hired a man to help me row there."

"You're joking."

"No. I'm not that fortunate, not since my dad passed away last year."

"Peter, I'll get you onto a real ship. Why didn't you come to me?" The were finally at the sweat drenched dance floor and Peter took up her left hand and placed his other hand on her shoulder like a gentlemen and stepped them into a dance. "And why didn't you tell me you knew how to dance?"

"Because I'm a peasant." He stated plainly, and Elsa sneered slightly, feeling a little hurt that he thought so low of himself.

"You are so much more than that Peter. I believe character makes a man, not how much money he puts into his ballroom tuxedo. Please, let me get you on a ship. I don't want you to wear yourself out rowing there, that's just maddening to think about it. It's no trouble at all." She pleaded, looking up into his sparkling eyes, softening as he felt himself surrendering at her smooth, silky voice.

"I don't want you to." He fought so hard to say those words.

"Well now I'm going to do it regardless!" She smiled at him and he couldn't help but smile back. His brown eyes began melting again, and his mind in a frenzy that he didn't feel so bad at taking her up on her offer now after hearing her spunky attitude.

"You are a marvelous human being Peter, and you need to accept that."

"And you look lovely tonight." He said despite his brain screaming at him not to. He didn't even know he said it until her face turned red, and her china blue eyes looked away from his and a sheepish smile spread across her lips, her soft looking lips. He caught himself staring at them.

"Thank you Peter, you look handsome as well. You clean up quite nice." All those early mornings in his bakery flashed through her head. Him always serving them in a dirty apron from preparing the day's treats.

"Thank you." All those early mornings of them stealing glimpses at each other as Anna stuffed her face eagerly, the early mornings easier to take on with her sister by her side again.

A heavy sigh came out of Elsa and her eyes became downcast.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" She yelped. "It's just that I don't want to go back to dancing with all those pitiful _boys_ after this."

"Then why don't we stay together for the rest of the night. I'll ward them off." He grinned.

"I don't want them to come up and insult you for talking with me."

"I'm not worried about it. I'll probably never see them again, so let them point and laugh. They still have three fingers pointing back at them." She chortled, and then she felt the overwhelming urge to rest her head against his chest. She imagined it for a second. How comfortable she'd feel, how she'd wrap her arms around him and he'd wrapped his arms around her, his thick, toned arms, and she could feel his chin resting on top hers, no really, he was resting his chin on hers.

"Hello? Did you hear me?" He lifted his head up again and looked down at her. He wasn't that much taller, maybe three inches?

"Oh, I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

"Do you want to get out of here?"

"And go where exactly?"

"How about the moon?"

"How about no."

"Then where?"

"Here."

"Okay then." He said dejectedly, with a little pout.

"It's just that Kristoff asked for my blessing this morning, and I'm waiting for Anna to run over and find me when he finally does propose."

"Oh! Why didn't you just say so instead of making me look like a fool?"

"You could never look like a fool to me." He had to look away, his hands felt like they were burning. "You're not wearing nearly enough bells." She continued, feeling how awkward he felt, and now he could look her in the eye again, those beautiful blue eyes, bluer than the ocean and bluer than the skies. Yes, he did just write a poem for her, but he'd probably never tell her.

"Plus, you're cousin will have more ammunition against me, and he'll say I've run away again!"

"Don't worry. I'm going to sit him tell and yell at him until he wets his pants for saying that to you."

"It's fine. Anna and I aren't stepping foot in there until you return."

"But then we'll go out of business! You guys buy up half of it every week even though you could just go to your kitchens and have all the free chocolate you want.

"Yes, but it takes better when you have to buy it, beside your's is better than than what we have here."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, really. So hurry and come back as soon as you can, and write too!"

"How do I address the queen in a letter?"

"As Elsa. You can address it to me _as_ me."

"Okay then, Elsa." He said slightly seductively, all in good fun, but she trembled in his hands at the sound of her name from his mouth. He made it sound like it was a rare, precious stone, he made it feel warm. She always thought it sounded cold, like her.

The music ended and applause replaced it. Peter lifted away his hands and began to clap as did Elsa trying to push her name out her mind, and that's when she heard a loud gasp over all the noise, no one else heard it though. Elsa looked over to her left and spotted that familiar shade of strawberry blonde and then a dirty blonde as they crossed over each other, and she smiled in understanding.

"That was fast."

"What was?" Peter asked and looked over where she was looking.

"Just wait, in three... two..."

"Elsa!" Anna shouted.

"One." And Elsa finished.

Down came an exhilarated Anna, with Kristoff in tow, and people parted for the happy couple against their will as Anna simply ran over them if they didn't move fast enough and Kristoff muttered apologies the whole way over.

"Elsa Elsa Elsa! Look Look!" She had her hand out and a diamond ring reflected back the chandeliers into their faces.


	4. That's the wrong whine

**Who's ready for drunk Kristoff? That is all.**

* * *

The clock struck ten as some very dejected souls of weary dukes and knights, and even a prince, found themselves rejected and walking away from a dying party after the dinner with the formal announcement that Princess Anna and Sir Kristoff were officially engaged.

There were still at least a few hundred people talking over their tea and cigars in the Great Hall, most of them gabbing on about the impending marriage. A lot of hushed tones carried the tune that Anna looked to be a few months pregnant, but I can assure reader, she was not. She had only gained a maximum of five pounds since learning that Somme's was to be put under new management soon, and she made sure to eat all the sweets she could to make sure she would remember the taste for years to come.

Speaking of which, where are our two little love birds? Well, they seem to be separated. But, all is not lost. Kristoff and Elsa are in plain view to me. They are off to the side, out of sight from the view of the people as they partook in a poetry drinking game. Ever since hearing how she was trained to hold her drink he's wanted to see her prove her metal, and where better than at the Princess' own birthday party?

Elsa refilled and raised her glass for the umpteenth time and swallowed the wine in one go, then smacked her mouth to really get all of the flavor from it, and without any hesitation she quoted, dramatically, like a true thespian, from the Poetic Edda, "I remember yet the giants of yore, Who gave me bread in the days gone by; Nine worlds I knew, the nine in the tree; With mighty roots beneath the mold." She then grabbed their third bottle of wine and refilled Kristoff's goblet and he too raised his cup and downed the whole serving at once.

"Of old was the age when Ymir lived;  
Sea nor cool waves nor s-s...andwiches." And, down falls an extremely sloshed Kristoff. Elsa smiles proudly, after Kristoff attempted and failed miserably at his verse, making Elsa the victor, the champion! of wine. But after putting down her glass behind her on a side table and looking back, he wasn't moving.

"Get up big guy! Anna's going to kill us!" She said as she took his goblet and placed it next to her glass, then went to try and pull him up.

"Anna! Oh I**_ love_** her! We're gettin' married! D'ya know that?" Kristoff slurred together the syllables resembling a trombone glissando. Elsa tried to pull him up herself, but then a heavy set man saw him in trouble and went to go help Elsa.

"I'll get him right as rain your majesty." He said as he supported all of Kristoff's substantial weight against him, moving them towards the door near the back of the room.

"It was my fault. I knew he couldn't beat me." She said coming over to the other side and putting Kristoff's other arm around her shoulder to be helpful, feeling terrible about it.

"It's not your fault the princess is marrying a drunkard!"

"He is not a drunkard! He just doesn't know when he's beaten in a drinking contest..." Elsa's voice trailed off at the end as she noticed a few heads turning, hearing her holler in defense for the poor man they were hauling away, the wine having gnawed at her brain a little on the cognitive side.

"Are you saying you put him up to this?"

"He put this on himself. I've been trained. Come on Kristoff, at least_ try_ and look like you're walking." She pestered at him and when he only laughed lazily she stomped on his foot. He was a little more alert now, but only a little. He didn't even yelp, he just looked at her like she hit Sven or something to that effect of rudeness.

"You? The queen? Beat this man in a drinking gamble?" The man went on.

"Yes! Is that so hard to believe?" Elsa said quite annoyed that he couldn't grasp the concept.

"Well... yes!" He scoffed back, looking over at the queen and trying to understand how it was possible for her to be walking so gracefully after defeating a man three? Four times her size! But Elsa was looking forward, scanning for Arendelle's latest fiancèe, but couldn't find that unmistakable hue of red anywhere. That's because it was behind them.

"Kristoff!" She gasped afterwards, seeing how he was being supported by a man and a woman, and began to run towards them. "Where are you going? Are you okay?"

Elsa turned her head back to the left to see the face for the voice and her own face went pale. "Elsa! Is he okay?"

Elsa looked forward again and sucked in a stabilizing breath. "Yeah, he just twisted his ankle." She lifted her left hand to her naval and pointed a finger at Kristoff and shot him with a bit of ice to make him yelp and help disguise the sound of his brain swishing in his head, but he was just too drunk to feel the pain.

"Damn you." She cursed under her breath, and Anna had made it in front of them and was looking at his ankles as she walked backwards, but she didn't see him limping, and she thought that was odd.

"No! Damn **_YOU_**!" Kristoff shouted, being drunk somehow made his hearing much more acute than this morning in the stables.

Anna looked up in shock, thinking he was talking to her. Then it hit her.

"Kristoff Bjorgman. Are you _drunk_?!"

"No!" He tripped over his own two feet. "I only had like... fwive drinks, no wait, **five** drinks."

"Plus how many?" She interrogated with narrowed eyes of complete disdain, no mater how cute he sounded completely out of mind.

"It's my fault Anna. Please don't be mad at him." Elsa begged.

"No, I _will_ be mad at him! You didn't pour the drinks down his throat. He did that all on his own. Didn't you." She had stopped and and waited for them to get closer and then she grabbed at his tunic exposed behind his jacket and yanked him close to her, pulling him down to look him straight in the eye.

"Hey there pretty." He started and then saw that her face wasn't softening, her mouth was set in an intense sneer, her brows anchored diagonally harshly, her eyes striking matches for the already lit fire in her belly. He gulped, quite audibly, despite himself.

"I'm not going to be so pretty in a little bit, you can bet your ass on it."

"My lady!" The man exclaimed in more shock still. First the queen can hold her liquor and now the princess is outright swearing in front of him.

"Oh, don't start with me!" Anna scolded him. "Get back to my party, both of you. I'll take care him. Ho oh oh, I'll take care of him alright." She tugged at him harder and made him follow her as she dragged him out of the room single handedly.

The man looked over at the queen and saw the tears lining the bottom of her eyelids and immediately felt awkward standing in the presence of an emotional woman, let alone his queen.

He pretended to loosen the mucus in his chest with a fake cough, and went on to say, "If you'll please excuse me your royal highness."

"Yes, yes, you are excused." She said shaking her head a little and looking over to him and waving her hand to ward him away. He bowed and turned and walked away, never looking back.

What she wouldn't give for a suitor to come and take her out of her misery she thought as Anna scolded and practically gave Kristoff a bath with her spit from yelling at him about his behavior in the hallway leading to the nearest water closet to throw him into a nice ice cold bath.

She felt the tears burn her cheeks and so she fled across the room and went to a set of doors, not caring where they led to. She was really too drunk to care. To much out of her mind in concern for Kristoff and Anna's wedding that was obviously in question now, as all the important dignitaries had heard that a certain knight of Arendelle was caught by his to be bride, smashed at her birthday party. Smashed because he didn't want to believe the queen could beat him at a drinking contest.

She ran into the guarding rail of a balcony, and almost fell over, but aw my precious reader, almost is as close to death she came, as she hung above the castle by her ankles and her dress fell over her head cutting off her vision of the warm lanterns and lights that glistened off the calm fjord all around.


	5. When plans go awry

**WOW THIs is really long... Why do you guys let me write this much? Oh yeah, because I love you all. :3**

* * *

He was raving mad. He just could not get through to him how much he was counting on him. All he got was a heartless, empty apology.

It was chilly outside, but he didn't care, he was boiling and took off his coat and threw it to the ground, the coat tails all sprawled out. He kept his waist coat on, but only because it was too much of a hassle. All the hair the wind touched raised in apprehension, and the pain from being overexerted by being so cold didn't phase him. He looked out onto the fjord, the fjord that surrounded a castle, a building he thought he'd never experience the inside of, but found himself dancing with it's queen in.

Then he went backtracked and looked out on the fjord that would become an ocean and carry away from where he knew he'd never belonged in the first place, no matter how good of friends he was with the royal family, and take him to the bottom tip of Sweden. He wasn't sure yet what he would do when he got there, how would get to Stockholm. Horses are just so expensive. It might be cool enough all day and night to carry some of his chocolate to sell and scrap enough up for someone to take him by wagon, but what if it's not cool enough and the chocolate melts and ruins everything.

"AUUUGH!" He exasperated into the night air out of madness. He threw his hands up then smacked them hard against his head and scratched at it fiercely, as if a good idea was hiding in his previously well oiled, slick hair.

The doors behind him flung open and a woman came flying out, not seeing where she was going. Peter could already see her falling to her death from the height of the balcony to the ground far below, where the sound of something like diamonds shattering was heard on the ground. He rushed over and just as she fell over he reached out as far as he could and grabbed a hold of the woman's slender ankles.

"Just hold on!" He yelled out after averting his eyes from her under-dress, as her real one was flopped over her head at the moment. He pulled her up and he cringed at the thought that the whole front of her body was being violently scraped at as she was brought over the edge, but the woman was aware enough to put out her hands and push herself to make it easier for the man to pull her up. He moved his hands up and up as she came back and back towards him, and he almost dropped her from trying so hard not to touch a strange woman's waist so low. But when he finally saw the woman's hair he did let go completely, but she was back over enough to push herself down onto the ground, but she remained leaning over it.

"My tiara! Oh thank goodness it wasn't my mother's." She sighed loudly with relief, placing her hand over her fluttering heart and turning around, still resting back against the railing, to thank her savior.

"Elsa, what were you thinking!"

"Peter! Oh my-We're you? That was-You saved me!" She ran at him and enveloped him warmly inside her arms. Peter didn't hesitate, he returned the hug, his first real hug in a year since his father passed away from pneumonia. He held his hands firmly on her back, to make sure she didn't go flying off anymore railings, and Elsa relished in her fantasy coming true. He felt so warm and she felt so cold. Anna dragging away Kristoff soured the good feelings in her mind and she frowned and tried to pull away feeling undeserving of affection, but Peter wouldn't budge.

"Now where do you think you're going? You already said you didn't want to go to the moon." He joked from earlier, still holding onto her tightly, breathing in her smell. She smelt like pine needles and fresh snow, and... He sniffed a little more deeply. Grapes?

"I wasn't watching where I was going. Oh Peter, I've ruined everything. Just let me go before I accidentally break your ribs or something."

"Not until you tell me what's _so_ terrible that you've done." He still wouldn't let go. He liked the feeling of her pressed against him; they had never hugged before, in the two years that they've gotten to know each other for a few minutes a few days a week, this was the most contact they've ever had in one day.

"I may have ruined my maybe future brother-in-law's reputation by getting him drunk and had him carried off like a lame man, then Anna came over and I lied saying he twisted his ankle but the oaf wouldn't pretend he was hurt and Anna found out he was drunk and dragged him out like some child." She took in a giant breath to replenish her fully emptied lungs from telling her story in one breath.

"Is that why I feel a buzz just from smelling your breath?" He chortled, and she moved her head to face his him completely and a let out one word, muted and muffled against his chest.

"Yes."

"I guess I don't know you as well as I thought. Didn't you think getting someone good and incapacitated in public view a bad idea?"

She lifted her head away and looked up to see his smiling face through her puffy red eyes, making china blue iris's striking in compliment. "I didn't think he would last so long! I had to start drinking when I was ten! Who knows when he ever started. But, he was never put on a schedule and drilled etiquette lessons while downing a whole bottle of ale. Ohhhh!" She moaned as she drove her face back into his chest. When she exhaled strongly from her nose it actually burnt him like frost instead of fire from normal people. Elsa was not a normal person. No, she was far more perfect than that, as she fought to stay upright since she was a little ill practiced not having been tested in a few years, five of them to be exact.

"When you've been locked away for years on end you forget how to behave in the rules set out by society." She grumbled as she shifted her head up and nestled it against Peter's neck. He smelt like chocolate and soap. For a moment she thought about chocolate soap. That would be a great present to Anna, but then she pushed that thought aside when he began to speak again.

"At least you're trying. You came back to us, and you've taken such great care of Arendelle that I'm sure your parents won't mind this one little slip up. They're watching you everyday, being proud of you everyday."

"Aren't you bold" If I wasn't way out of my mind I'd have you locked in chains for people to pelt you with rotten fruit." She half way thought, her fermented grape stained voice barely carrying itself up with it's delirious weight.

"You'd enjoy it I'm sure." He laughed out seeing the mental image of her picking the fruit and pressing it into more wine, but she saw something rather different. Him kneeling down on a stage, his hands cuffed behind his back and chained to a pole behind him, and people throwing assorted rotten food at him; at his bare chest. She could feel the individual muscles through the shirt he wore, making his chest shine more brilliantly in her mind.

To say she was blushing was a gross understatement. Now she really needed to get away from him.

"No, I wouldn't, and I think I should go." Her voice was sturdy now. It kind of scared Petered and he unwound his arms from her. "I still have to find a captain to take you on your journey, and write to where ever you're landing to tell them to have a carriage to take you to where ever your chocolate school is." She started to walk away, but he stopped her with his voice, slightly wobbly from being shoved aside like a pillow that's too hard to sleep on.

"You don't even know where I'm really going?"

"Sweden." She said resolutely.

"Yes, but not just Sweden! And it's not a chocolate school either." He said chuckling like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He turned around in place and looked to her. She was a glowing silhouette against the light coming out from inside, the wind picking up the ends of hair and playing with it, making it dance off her shoulders.

"Aren't you cold?" She said looking at his coat on the ground, trying to find a way to ease her way back into her old self. Sure and strong, not a woman with a temporary lack of restraining her self pity from the over consumption of alcohol.

"No, you kept me warm. It's pretty funny I think."

"Why is that?" She demanded with disgust, recoiling into herself like he just threw a boulder at her.

He began to walk over and retrieve his coat, his eyes locked on to Elsa's fervently. He bent down to reach it and said, "Everyday, people in my bakery are always talking about how cold you must be being the Ice Queen, after you and Anna have left, but they're wrong, you're the warmest person I've ever met."

Elsa didn't know what to say. She always knew what to say. Her mind just scurried into the back of her skull and left her with nothing to mull over, nothing to say. She looked into his eyes, his warm, melting eyes, but she couldn't find an anchor in those chocolate seas of his.

When he realized he wasn't going to get a response he changed tactic as well. "Aren't you cold?"

"I'm never cold. I'm the... Ice queen." She spat out the title like she did her first taste of Anna's mud pies. She knew it was mud, but she could never pass up the opportunity to make her little sister smile.

"Hey, no no no, I'm sorry." He rushed over to her as she started to cave in on herself even more, struggling so hard not to start crying. She wasn't sad, or angry, just frustrated. Don't you ever just cry because you're just so frustrated? People were insulting her blatantly behind her back, and she's just now hearing of it. "Let's go inside. We can grab a mug of coffee or tea or anything you want and go set up my plans." He pulled his coat back on before draping an arm over Elsa's shoulder, to lessen the chance of hairy eyeballs he'd receive escorting the queen in from outside, just the two of them, out there... alone.

"Do I get a choice?" She asked, her mind starting to ebb back into it's place, and a little smile crept onto her face from being held.

"If you want to do something else, then you do it. I thought I'd at least put something out there."

There were only a few stragglers left, maybe twenty people in all, trying to scrape themselves off their seats, finding it hard because of exhaustion.

"Well, at least I don't have kick everyone out." She halfheartedly joked.

"Queen Elsa! There you are!" Wilbur came running over, a broad smile on his face. "We were looking for you!"

"Why is something wrong?" She immediately thought of Anna and Kristoff.

"No! No, we just couldn't find you, and we wanted to make sure you were alright."

"More like you wanted to make sure I didn't run away again."

"My lady, I would never!"

Elsa's eyes went impossibly wide. She felt herself caving in, her ribs snapping, her femurs shrinking, all of her sucking into one focal point to disappear.

"I didn't say that out loud. I didn't say that out loud!" She kept repeating, trying to make it true, and looked to Wilbur then to Peter, then back at Wilbur, then back at Peter, and the two men did the same, looking at the other then back, racking their minds for an answer to solve everything.

Wilbur strung together a few thoughts and processed them through his mouth carefully. "Mayhaps, you'd just like to go to room. Today has been quite... eventful, to say the least."

"Yes, yes it has. I am _so_ sorry Wilbur, I don't know what's gotten into me. Please forgive me."

"Nothing to forgive my lady." He bowed and when he rose he gestured towards the door far away, signaling they were free to leave. He didn't as much as bat an eyelash to Peter.

They walked on and the servants all around cleaning either nodded their heads, with full arms, or, if their loads were light enough, they would bow and curtsy to the passing queen, but most of them looked at Peter. They didn't recognize him. Practically no one the whole evening did. Dignitaries from the surrounding towns and countries here to visit the princess and wish her a happy birthday aren't ones to head towards the nearest cafe when there is a castle waiting for them full of free food whenever they want. They only way anyone would know Peter wasn't royalty or honorable in any way was for him to say something, and he never did. Here, it wasn't that odd to be unrecognized by one another. Arendelle isn't a big melting pot, let alone a big important stop as they sat near the bottom south of Norway.

Peter went through the whole evening worrying that he didn't belong there, when no one knew each other anyways.

The servants were bowing to both of them.

"Why don't you tell me more about your trip so I know who I need to call for." Elsa said vacantly as they strode through the workers.

"I'm going to Stockholm. There's a convention there, a kind of workshop for aspirating chefs like myself. That will last for a week then I and many others will be placed under the wing of Chef Kron. He is a famous royal cook who specializes in deserts. For two years we will travel all through Sweden and serve in palaces and castles for kingdoms on end." His voice grew more dramatic and proud with every word he spoke. His chest rode and stuck out, his chin was lifted high and his eyes had a gleam of accomplishment, though he'd done nothing yet.

"My, that does sound exciting." Elsa remarked as they left the Great Hall behind them. "My office is this way." She said, tugging at his arm as he tried to go left. "But, where are you staying during this convention?"

"I don't know." He said sheepishly.

"Do you have transportation to get there when you arrive in Sweden?" Her voice began to sound very pronounced like a mother's

"Not exactly." He said even more shy and extremely embarrassed at his lack of organization.

"Tell me, how long have you been planning this?"

"Well news was spread of all this last year, and I finally had convinced my cousin to come down three months ago. but for two of them after he said yes I hadn't heard a single word from him and so I just put the whole thing behind me until last month, when I received a letter saying how he was "busy" with something he wouldn't explain. So, I've been planning for a month."

"Only a months notice and you're still going through with all of this? With no plans?"

"I figured I just wing it. What's the worst that could happen."

"You could get mugged, or fall deathly ill! And _no_ one would know where you were and _no_ one could help you! Those are just a couple of the worst things that could happen!"

"I think I liked you better when you were distraught." He said with a sad smirk.

"Peter I'm serious! I don't want you to go when you have nothing figured out."

"What are you going to do? Send me to the dungeons so I can think about it some more? I've been dreaming about this for a year, I just never thought I'd actually get to do it."

Elsa twisted the doorknob to her office door and pushed it open and they walked in. "Please have a seat. We have a long night ahead of us." She said gesturing to the couch placed in front of her desk where Anna spent most of her days when they were first reunited.

"I still have to tell my rower that our plans are off. There's no way I'm leaving tomorrow is there?" He asked a little wistful as he sunk down in the leather couch.

Elsa stood behind her desk, watching him as he threw himself down, and her heart gave out a whimper and she couldn't stand the thought of sitting across from him. "You say that like a bad thing." She strode over and went to sit beside him.

He looked over at her when she sat down, an empty cushion between them. He knew she was only joking with him, but he wasn't in the mood for jokes. She understood the look in his eyes.

"Why don't I set up a room for you here tonight? You can sleep here and we'll rise early and plan everything out tomorrow."

"Because I need to be there in two weeks." He said, the anxiety of staying another day already wearing a hole in him. It was already too much to have come tonight, but he just couldn't take anymore of Anna pouting.

"I'll get you there well within two weeks." She affirmed and placed her hand on his shoulder to calm his frayed nerves.

"Why do you even care!" He shouted, jumping up and off the couch, leaving a stunned Elsa alone.

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because! I am a poor, little, peasant, and you. You? Well you're a queen! A beautiful, warm, intelligent, rich woman who is squandering her time with me, the poor peasant after dancing with who knows how many suitors. Oh don't look at me like that, you knew they were coming."

"No I most certainly did not!" She said rising up too.

"Anna didn't tell you?" His face went white, and he looked almost painted from the sharp contrast of his tanned skin.

"No, she didn't." She looked to the ground with disbelief. Her sister. Her own little sister, had set her up for a night of dancing with the world's most arrogant bachelors. And she told Peter but not her?

"Oh Elsa, I'm so sorry. I'm- I..."

They stood still, in silence, begging for the ground beneath them to swallow them whole.

"Hey, you didn't call me queen or anything." Elsa said after a little bit, finding it a little easier to look up at him now.

He found the same strength as well and looked back up into her eyes. "You told me not to."

"Do you know why?"

"Because we're in such small company. Like before when you first told me."

"No. That's not why." She said resolutely, a lovely smile spreading across her face. She moved closer to him, reaching for one of his toned hands. Peter's face was flaming, but the fire underneath was quenched for a moment when he swore he just saw the door open slightly, and he swore he heard a girl's voice say something as Elsa stroked his knuckles with her thumb. She turned her head in the direction he looked and saw nothing of the sorts and looked back at him and thought he was just trying to not look her in the eye when they're so close. They were so close the tips of their shoes touched. They were so close, he could feel her warm, sweet breath caress his face when she spoke. "It's because you're my friend and I care about you." Then she lifted to the balls of her feet and for a split second she thought about it, like you are now, but she didn't, and she led her lips to his cheek, but Peter has never been known to not put his whole weight into risks.

He lifted his arms and he cupped her smooth cheeks with his rough hands and slowly, gingerly, pulled her face closer as he brought his lips to hers, her soft, blissful lips, and he watched her eyes grow bright like a child's in wonder and he kissed her; tenderly, softly at first, but oh! She kissed him back. And she kissed him back hard.

She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down, and he wrapped his arms tightly around her so she couldn't ever get away, not that she ever wanted to. She felt so empowered, but she also felt so dizzy and unsteady, like the ground was actually trying to swallow her from underneath and so she grabbed a fist full of his curly hair and held him against her with all her dear life because God! He felt good.

He pulled away first and she pushed out her lips to stay on his, but he kept backing his head away and he smiled at her stuck out kissy lips and said, "I care about you too." Then he obliged her and kissed her again.


	6. You spy (on your big sister)

"I said I was sorry! Stop being such a big baby will you?" She hissed quietly.

"It's for reasons like this it took me two years." He loudly whispered back

"Shut up! They're talking!" She hissed again

"What are they saying?" He pushed into her to put his ear to the door and the door opened.

"Stop it! You're never drinking again." Anna had her hand around the knob and pushed back against a still very drunk Kristoff, and put it back where Elsa left it.

"Be quiet and maybe you'll hear them over the sound of wine swishing in your empty head."

"It's because you're my friend and I care about you."

"Awww, how sweet." Kristoff swooned at the mushy sentiment, but Anna closed her eyes to hear better and still couldn't hear anything. She mulled over the possibilities and one kept sticking out in particular and it overwhelmed her. She sucked in her breath and held it there as she slowly, and I mean so slow you couldn't tell she was moving at all, opened the door a little, then looked through the gap with a eye and low and behold.

She snapped back up with a cheshire grin and practically tackled a stumbling Kristoff.

"It worked! Loki himself couldn't have possibly done better!" She yelled in a whisper.

* * *

"Anna, please! Chew with your mouth closed." Anna simply chewed with her mouth open even more wide just to spite her sister, and all Elsa could do was laugh at the grotesque sight. When Elsa opened her eyes again after her laughter died down she saw a man looking at her. He was the one who greeted them when they first came in, making a big deal of it, welcoming them so warmly and forcibly. Elsa raised her hand and his words choked in his throat. She explained that it wasn't needed and her and her sister simply wanted to sit and eat somewhere away from the stress of being royal. His eyes sparkled in admiration and Anna noted how cute he was when Elsa chose a table by the front since it was a giant window so she could watch the little children play in the street. She merely brushed the observation off her shoulder as she watched two little girls chase a furry, black dog.

Now having been caught he blushed and looked away and tried to make it seem like he just happened to be looking in her direction and just happened to gaze into eyes of pure sapphire. '_No! Stop that. You stop that right now_ _Peter._' And he went to go back into the kitchen to clean something like a man. He found the greasiest pan he could and scrubbed away at it feeling his manliness surge back into him. He wasn't a boy that dreamed of romance. Of courting a queen. Girls dreamed about marrying princes. That was okay. That was allowed.

"Men don't waste their time with dreams." He muttered under his breath.

Back out in the front Elsa was mesmerized by the simply scrumptious perfection that was the special on the menu for the day: the fattigmann bukkels. They were thin and crispy on the outside, but warm and gooey on the inside, dipped in the most decadent chocolate and dusted with powered sugar.

"If you like them so much why don't you just go back there and tell them! They'd love to hear it!" Anna insisted getting a tad annoyed that her sister wouldn't shut up about the damn pastry.

"But they're all so busy most likely... I don't want to bother them for something so small as this."

"Grrrr! I'll do it. I'm no chicken." Anna rose up madly and dashed to the counter to go behind it, but Elsa grabbed and pulled at her arm and she stopped looking back at her captor.

"Fine! I will go back there and tell them myself. Go sit back down and calm yourself." And with that Anna went back to her seat and started to greedily steal all of Elsa's remaining fattigmann's.

Elsa went behind the wall and found herself standing in front of a dark, steamy kitchen. Three burly men were stationed around the small little thing either frying, or frosting something, while the man she didn't know she wanted to she was elbow deep in dirty dishes. She cleared her throat and received angry stares at first, but then all the men bowed with humble respect in her presence.

"Please! Rise." She smiled broadly. She never really liked being bowed too. "I just wanted to compliment the chef who made the chocolate covered cookies. They were simply extraordinary."

"That would be my boy Peter. He made the recipe for 'em those fattigmann's this mornin'." A tall man with a thick beard said with a chocolate covered thumb pointing at the smallest man in the room. Peter. He whipped his hands out of the bubbling sink and wiped them dry with his dirty apron and walked up to her with shaking knees and a spinning brain.

"Peter?"

He coughed into his hand to sound tough, like someone who works in a mine field, not a bakery. "Yes." He looked at her with eyes of steel, but then remembered his place. "Your uh-majesty." And he bowed once more.

"Well, I must say they are the best thing I think I have ever tasted. You are a marvelous baker."

"Thank you your majesty!" He said a little too giddy, but he had no way to correct himself.

"I'd like some more please, to take home later. I'm sure my sister has already eaten the rest of mine as we speak."

"Sure thing your highness. I'll bring them out personally."

"Thank you. Peter." She smiled at him and from that a moment he knew he was in trouble. Her eyes were soft like snow but that smile, that smile was the final nail in his coffin.

She turned and left and returned to her table, all her fattigmann's gone, their sugar and chocolate smeared all over Anna's guilty face. Elsa rolled her eyes and smirked as she grabbed a napkin and held it to her sister's mouth and demanded that she spit it in.

"Either you spit, or I do." She said and Anna chose the former, and Elsa used the dampened napkin to wipe Anna's face back to it's original glory.

"You're a little better than mama. She never gave me the choice." Anna said as Elsa sat back down again.

"You probably never gave _her_ the choice." She retorted back. Both of them were determined to never be sad talking about the past, their childhood of separation. It was going to come up and they were going to face it, together.

Anna saw a man coming towards them with a brown sack, and this puppy dog look on his face as his eyes were on her big sister and on her alone. Anna grinned and looked at her sister to optically tell her that she was being checked out, but she was looking away, at him.

"Here you are, my lady." He placed the sack on the table and started to bow again.

"Please don't. I don't like it when people bow to me all the time." Elsa told him with a small voice. She finally got to see him full on. His dark curly hair, his deep tan, his dark brown eyes, wide feel the feeling of something... Something... She couldn't think of the word, but she knew it was there.

"You can bow all you want to me, and I don't mind at all." Anna squeezed in feeling a little awkward as her sister gazed into the eye's of the baker. Her joke broke their trance and they looked away, roses blooming on their faces.

"Thank you Peter." Elsa expressed grabbing the sack and eyeing a evil looking Anna. Elsa only thought she was plotting how to steal away her sweets, but no. No, she had something much more grand at work in her mind.

"You are most welcome my lady." Peter said with his eyes to the ground. He remembered not to bow to her, but he did for Anna and she laughed at him.

"I was joking! You don't have to bow to me dear." Anna barked out kindly, spitting out the sip she took from her mug as she was eyeing her sister staring at Peter. Peter only blushed some more, making him look even more adorable to Elsa.

He turned and walked away, and didn't look back, not even for the new customers that just walked in. They didn't notice him speeding away, they were focused on greeting the queen and the princess.

He couldn't help it though. As he turned to disappear behind the wall, he got behind the wall and poked out his head just far enough to see out front and caught one last glimpse...

Of her smiling directly at him.

He jumped back in surprise, but hit something very solid behind him; the two cooks and his father. All of them grinning, all of them sharing the same look of mischief as Anna did a second ago. Then from his father came the stinging words, laced with sarcasm, the words Peter thought no one heard, "Men don't waste their time with dreams, indeed." The three men all laughed wholeheartedly, deep from within their bulging bellies. Then his father slapped a giant, gentle hand onto his son's shoulder and continued, "Men spend their time making their dreams come true."

It was love. What Peter felt. What Elsa saw. It was true love.

* * *

Kristoff just stared at her for a few moments. They were both sitting cross legged on her bed as she told him about the first time they met Peter. The clock was almost about to yawn midnight. He opened his mouth, but he was just so much in wonder at it all, and closed it again and huffed through his nose.

"Well?!" Anna pushed him to say something.

"Are you telling me that you've been planning this? Getting Elsa and Peter together since you first met him?"

"Yep." Anna smiled big and proud, crossing her arms in front of her chest, sticking out her chest with pride.

"Did you learn nothing the first time?!" Kristoff shot off and Anna's chest and smile dropped. "You didn't even know who he really was!"

"It's been two years Kristoff. I've been thinking and changing and rearranging. They love each other Kristoff. You should have seen it. If you saw it you'd understand." She grabbed his face in her tiny hand and looked him in the eye and continued seriously, "I'm talking about real love." She pulled his face towards his and kissed him.

He indulged her for a little bit but he still had so many questions and he pulled away.

"So, you told Peter about inviting all the rudest men you could find-"

"His cousin Christopher works in the king's palace in Flornes. He goes on and on about how much he admires these guys in his letters to Peter, trying to brag about how big of a success he is, living in a palace, as a servant."

"But how did you know they'd end up in her office tonight?"

"That part I didn't plan. I didn't think they'd end up kissing, but that's more than I could have ever hoped for."

"Yeah, your sister falling head over heels in love with a man who's going away for two years. How romantic."

"Trust me. When he gets back, she'll still be in love."

"How do you know?"

"I like to consider myself a love expert." They both grinned and Kristoff kissed her once more, then he kissed her nose, then her forehead.

"Well, I'll see my little love expert tomorrow then. Goodnight."

She pouted, but knew it was best for him not to spend the night in her room. She looked over at the clock, it was three minutes until tomorrow. "Goodnight Kristoff. I love you. And I'm sorry again about being so rough with you earlier."

"I'm just glad you're done using me as a puppet. It was fun getting drunk and all, but next time I'd like to do it not in a plot to make Elsa leap into the arms of a baker, okay?"

"Oh alright. Go to bed." She grinned and stood up off her bed, still needing to change. "My magical beauty spell will be gone at the stroke of twelve." She said eerily wriggling her fingers, mocking casting a curse on him. He grinned with a laugh and shut her door, and she undressed, redressed in a nightgown and then dove into her bed and she dreamt all night of playing in Elsa's ice castle, made of chocolate.


End file.
